Microsoft Band could live on with blood pressure and stress tracking features

The Microsoft Band could live on according to two new patents, which show off a Band-looking wearable and point to it packing a couple of serious health tracking features.

The first patent (image below), which was filed by Microsoft in November 2017, describes the use of a two ring-shaped, electrically conductive skin sensors that would be able to tap into features such as stress monitoring. The use of two of the sensors would help to ensure that there is continuous skin contact and will be made "large and knobbly" to help them stay put.

The second patent was filed in February 2017 and relates to the ability to estimate blood pressure, giving the user a general idea of their blood pressure as opposed to an accurate reading. It uses the pulse oximeter built into the band to measure radial pulse pressure or aortic pulse wave velocity, which is said to correlate with actual blood pressure. That is then combined with data about your age, medical history, contextual data and harness AI to improve the accuracy of the reading.

After launching the first Band in 2014, Microsoft decided to discontinue the Band 2 back in 2016. Reports suggested it had no plans to launch a Band 3, despite photos and rumoured features surfacing about the cancelled tracker.

But perhaps this evidence suggests it's not giving up on wearables entirely and may follow in the footsteps of Apple and Fitbit by targeting serious health tracking. Or at the very least Microsoft is still thinking about health tracking.